As predicted, it has been cloudy and chilly all day with mist, some rain and a breeze. It feels like the coldest day since arriving here.

On the way to the transmitter site, TWR’s one-lane dirt access road passes through Dombeya Wild Estate. This morning we saw two giraffe next to the road. We more often see impala, warthog, wildebeest (gnu), nyala, and zebra as we travese this small game park each morning and evening.

Since we are supported missionaries, we often get questionnaires from our supporting churches. The one sent via email today was unique in that it asked about how were we prepared for retirement. I spent a hour or so answering their questions.

Salema came to me about two inductors that had been assembled in Elkhart and was included with the spare transmitter parts shipment last year. Initially, I thought his questions would be easy to answer, then discovered that the label inside one of the inductors was not correct. I looked up the drawing of part indicated on the label and the inductor did not match the drawing. Since the two inductors were slightly different, I determined that it would be necessary to measure the inductance of each one to see how they compare to the electrical schematic of the transmitter. Unfortunately, TWR Eswatini does not have an LCR meter that could directly read out the inductance. Therefore, I thought of a way that might work using only a voltmeter. I went on-line to verify my thoughts and only found various other more complicated ways.

The schematic of the transmitter indicated the coil should be 0.97 millihenry, so I thought that using an on-line reactance calculator would be the fastest way to obtain the reactance. The first calculator found on the search page indicated the reactance would be 305 ohms at 50 Hz. That seemed way off to me, so I went to the next calculator which came up with 0.305 ohms. That seemed more reasonable, which was verified by additional on-line calculators. This just confirms that if something doesn’t seem right, whether in your own calculations or from the internet, you should redouble effort to verify what you find. Actually, it would have been faster to just use the formulas instead of trying the on-line ‘shortcuts’! When will I learn?

To measure the reactance of the inductors, I just needed to locate a step-down transformer (for working with safer voltages) and the right resistors to do the job. Easy to say, if an assortment of resistors is readily available.

In the middle of doing inductor research, an unidentifiable sound could be heard inside the transmitter hall. I found that one of the technicians was flying the drone used for inspecting the towers and antennas. We had brought a spare battery for it in our baggage and this was a test run.

Khumalo, the maintenance manager, came to me at the end of the day. He said he had been too busy to work on the Case 570T loader today, but would like my help tomorrow to get the starter working again.

When I got home this afternoon, Virginia had a fire going in the fireplace since mid-morning. I was finally able to take off my jacket for the first time today. Virginia attended an on-line prayer meeting at Lorraine’s this morning and there it was mentioned that this winter has been the coldest in many years.

This evening, Tobi brought over a wheelbarrow of firewood to replenish our firewood supply and Steve changed some of our lilangeni (Eswatini currency) to South African rands in preparation for our trip to the Drakensburg mountains on Wednesday. [South Africa rands can be used in Eswatini, but lilangeni can not be used in South Africa] The missionaries, and nationals, here are really looking after us.